Men and the Girls [Paperback]

Joanna Trollope (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1995

Suddenly in their sixties, the Men have reached acritical juncture -- in their emotional lives, in their careers... and in their loving relationships with the Girls, who are half their age.

Popular British TV personality Hugh Hunter has begun feeling resentful toward his much younger, seemingly perfect wife, Julia. For while his own star is on the wane,Julia's is rapidly ascending. James Mallow, a teacher,has shared eight blissful years with Kate Bain, his junior by a good quarter century. But his devoted longtime partner appears restless these days.

Then a freak rush hour accident knocks a fiercely independent spinster from her bicycle -- an event that will have a profound and wildly unanticipated impact on two unorthodox unions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The men in this delightfully sage novel of domesticity by bestselling British author Trollope ( The Rector's Wife ) are lifelong friends Hugh and James--each 60-ish, sexy, appealing. The "girls"--Julia and Kate--are a fair bit younger. Hugh, a handsome TV celeb, suffers when his popularity fades while his perfect wife Julia, lovely mother of their angelic twins, bursts into the lucrative limelight of a new TV career. Fretting resentfully, Hugh decamps. His friend James, a comfortably well-off writer/tutor, lives with Kate, who is a waitress at Pasta Please and volunteers at a woman's shelter. In search of a trendier, independent lifestyle, restless Kate finds a flat and tries to whisk away her teenaged daughter, funky-haired Joss. Both families fall apart, both interact with each other and draw into their orbits a clutch of splendidly drawn minor characters--choral kibbitzers and would-be paramours--who activate the fateful choices of James and Kate and Hugh and Julia. Noteworthy among them is shrewd, venerable Miss Bachelor, regularly setting all straight with her pithy wisdom. Underlying the novel's richly orchestrated movement of leave-takings and homecomings is the view that a loving, cozy home life--whether rowdy or serene--is a blessing to be trifled with at one's peril. Insightful and prolific Trollope, a descendent of Victorian novelist Anthony, also writes romances as Caroline Harvey. Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The university town of Oxford is the setting for a wonderfully fluid, mesmerizing story of the intimate and suddenly volatile relationships of two former school friends, now past 60 years of age. James lives with Kate (who is thirtysomething), her teenage daughter (nose earring, shorn head, black boots, etc.), and crotchety Uncle Leonard. Hugh's wife, Julia, also thirtyish, is the mother of young twins. Into the very settled lives of these two households comes Beatrice, an elderly spinster, knocked off her bicycle by James' car. Not with ease, but with great perseverance will this group of eccentric personalities work to bridge generational gaps and shifting fortunes. Trollope's first novel to be published in the U.S.--a Literary Guild selection--exhibits all the characteristics of a masterly storyteller in her prime, and outlining its bare bones cannot do it justice. With a good deal of promotion expected, Trollope's winning novel--and surely any to follow--will be a solid addition for fiction collections. Alice Joyce --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380724081
• ISBN-13: 978-0380724086
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,675,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joanna Trollope has been writing fiction for more than 30 years. Some of her best known works include The Rector's Wife (her first #1 bestseller), A Village Affair, Other People's Children, and Marrying the Mistress. She was awarded the OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honors List for services to literature. She lives in England.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Giving Versus Taking, March 13, 2002

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Men and the Girls (Paperback)

I often wonder why the brilliant Ms. Trollope gives such deceptively fluffy titles to all her books, when every book she writes contains such richness. Is that why, in a recent review, I saw her described as "cozy"? I almost fainted!

Therefore, let me say it here and now: If you are looking for cozy and comforting romance (and there's nothing wrong with that!), Joanna Trollope is not your author. If, on the other hand, you enjoy reading about likeable, oh-so-human characters who try, in their own muddled way, to slog through the complexities of everyday life, you will love "The Men and the Girls," another Trollope masterpiece.

The "men," in this case, are James and Hugh, both successful, urbane friends who are now in their 60s, and who have known each other over 40 years. Theirs is a friendship made indescructible by time and understanding, even if there are times when each grates horribly on the other. Each man, as it happens, has chosen a companion very much younger than himself. James, an academic, has been living with Kate, a lovely and artless woman in her 30s who prefers menial jobs (such as waitressing) so she can pursue her true passions, such as helping out at a home for battered women. She has an impossible teenaged daughter, Joss, the product of a brief and hurtful romance gone wrong. Kate and James are very happy; their household is completed by James' elderly uncle, Leonard, whose cantankerous bellowing belies a tender heart. The heart of the house is Kate, who keeps everything going and who manages her horrible teenager and the equally horrible Leonard with love and aplomb.

Hugh, a minor TV personality, lives with the prim and proper Julia, also in her 30s, a lovely woman who has given birth to Hugh's only children, impeccable twin boys. Their picturebook life is lived in a beautifully decorated and spotless house with a gorgeous garden, all the work of Julia, who keeps her six-year-old twins equally clean and perfect. Julia also works in television, but devotes the majority of her time to Hugh, her boys, and her house and garden.

In both relationships, James' and Hughs', the men take wholeheartedly of their women's love and nurturing, and age seems to be no problem whatsoever. Enter a totally unlikely catalyst: a plain and elderly spinster names Beatrice, whom James has accidentally knocked off her bicycle on a dark and rainy night. Beatrice is unhurt, but James, understandably upset, becomes involved in her life, first out of guilt, and then out of real interest.

It is at this point that Kate suddenly and cruelly decides that she cannot live with James another minute, and uproots herself and her daughter with no thought to the consquences other than the need to escape. A similar situation occurs with Julia and Hugh (too complicated to describe in a review), and they, too, separate. And suddenly, our preconceived ideas about who are the givers and who are the takers are completely reversed, as the four protagonists must shift their lives and their expectations in completely unforeseen ways. In the end, all of our suppositions about James, Kate, Hugh and Julia are radically different, as we realize that none is truly a whole adult. And that Joss, the nasty, self-centered teen, is the most truly well-rounded of them all.

Interesting reading, fascinating to think about. Happy ending? Not exactly. A REAL ending is more to the point, as lives sort themselves out, not always for the better, but as they inevitably must. "The Men and the Girls" is another Trollope triumph, well worth reading and keeping on one's shelf of well-loved books.
--Calyndula

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Likeable Characters Ring True in a Modern Tale, July 6, 2001

By 

Julia L. Wilkinson (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Men and the Girls (Paperback)

Trollope has become one of my favorite authors and this book is one of the reasons why. Her characters draw you in with their everyday humanity; none of them are perfect and you feel you can relate to most of them.

With a title like The Men and the Girls you might think you know where Trollope is going with this -- some kind of modern morality play -- but that's never the case with her stuff. She paints a lively, honest picture of what's real and complicated about our daily modern lives, including all the little things we do that can be so telling. Her endings are rarely contrived or completely happy, and so seem all the more real.

And even though some of her characters seem a bit too quirky for their own good, the end result is one of embracing what's different and hence "normal" about us all.

This book should appeal to all kinds of people...women in relationships with older men, and men of the same age... men in relationships with younger women, women of the same age, and older women! (OK Ms. Trollope can u spin us a yarn next time with a woman and a younger man?!).

This American reader is devoted to this British author. Enjoy!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real Men and Better Girls, February 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Men and the Girls (Paperback)

Generational gaps are the backbone of this subtle, well-crafted novel; from the elderly men living with or married to middle-aged women to the elderly Oxford spinster befriending the teenaged rebel, Trollope's novel is a study in the dynamics that erupt when age becomes MORE than just a number. With strong yet vulnerable characters (just eccentric enough to add the necessary levity to the densely psychological plot), compelling plot twists, and an ending that is just happy enough to satisfy (one couple is reconciled, one is not), Trollope makes you laugh, cry ... and fear for your OWN relationships. A solid, emotional, intelligent read.